A lot has been made about the unusually quiet offseason just concluded by the Red Sox. There were a few Ben Cherington sightings from time to time, but generally he and his staff and the entire organization more or less disappeared from public view from the time Mike Napoli, sans shirt, roamed around Boston on his own personal pub crawl until David Ortiz began his annual “I’m being disrespected” series of interviews just a couple of weeks ago.

Fans and the media were convinced that the Sox would use their excess of starting pitchers and their abundance of minor league talent to pull off a blockbuster move or two (Giancarlo Stanton or Matt Kemp, anyone?), but nothing much has happened outside of acquiring utilityman Jonathan Herrara.

With Ryan Dempster’s announcement that he is following in the path of another Boston champion in his late 30s – Tim Thomas – and taking a year off to get physically right and spend more time with his family (Dempster, a Canadian, has not posted any anti-government rants on his Facebook page) – the Red Sox quandary about which of their 6 starters to push out of the rotation was solved. Boston looks to go into 2014 with a grouping of Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, John Lackey, Jake Peavy, and Felix Doubront. If these pitchers were each pitching to the best of his ability, on paper the Red Sox have to have the deepest 5-man rotation in the American League – especially since Detroit moved Doug Fister during the winter. Dempster looked to be the odd man out of the rotation – particularly when one realizes that he was pushed out last postseason and he had served as a relief pitcher – with some success – during his time in Chicago.

Dempster’s departure not only solves the first pitching-related issue facing John Farrell right now, it also frees up more than $13M that the Sox were committed to paying the right-hander this year. While Dempster’s presence will seemingly be missed in the clubhouse (look at all his teammates that showed up at his press conference), Cherington and Farrell most feel a sense of relief in that they do not have to hurt anyone’s feelings by demoting him to the pen and they are saving a lot of money that they can put towards another acquisition.

The biggest detractor associated with Dempster’s decision is that it may stymie the front office in making a trade during spring training. Where the Sox had an embarrassment of riches, now they would have to clear out one of their starting 5 to make way for Brandon Workman or one of the other young arms progressing through their system. The issue with moving either Peavy or Lackey would be wondering if Lester can step up as a veteran leader for the younger guys coming into the majors.

His 132 – 133 lifetime record aside, Dempster pitched well enough over the course of his career to earn enough money that he is financially able to walk away from another $13M. Unfortunately, it seems like more people remember him for taking 4 pitches to hit Alex Rodriguez last August than for pitching big in April when the Sox needed to come out strong.

All the best to Ryan Dempster – thanks for helping last season and thanks for helping this season too.